A lovingly crafted insight into one of the greatest of musical minds. Extensive excerpts from letters, postcards, and notebooks yields a startling account of Scriabins progression from child prodigy to poet, philosopher, and composer. However this is not just a biography, it's presentation is akin to a Scriabin Sonata, with structure yet diversity and surprise. A joy for all music lovers and a must for Scriabin fans.

Mr. Bower's biography of Scriabin is more than a biography. It is at the same another window into the life of the more priviledged classes of prerevolutionary Russia before WWI...a virtual syllabus of names and personalities to be investigated in further readings. It is a lively illustration of a lost culture, a worthwhile addition to the cultural picture painted in Massey's THE FIREBIRD.

This book is actually a letter from a Russian professor to a student sent off to war. It's short, but won't be an easy read. These are "pearls" but getting the oyster open is going to be tough. It's also remarkable for it's candid revelation of the mathematical process of professional practitioners at various universities in different countries. The first pearl is about a young student name van der Waerden. Yep, the guy who went on to prove so many results in Abstract Algebra and wrote the classic text on the subject influencing Artin and Noether. It's interesting to note, van der Waerden used finite differences in his proof recounted in the first pearl, and he's the only author I know that included finite differences in his abstract algebra text book. Both the candid historical confessions and the conversational exposition make this a great book. It's style and methods should be widely imitated. Come on, professors, write more like this! Future archaeologist of the 20th century will be glad this document is available for it's revelation of the habits of homo professorus mathematicus.

A Y Khinchin was one of the greatest mathematicians of the first half of the twentieth century. He was also famous as a teacher and communicator. Fortunately, several of the books he wrote are still in print in English translations, published by Dover. Like William Feller and Richard Feynman he combines a complete mastery of his subject with an ability to explain clearly without sacrificing mathematical rigour.

This is a short book of three chapters: Chapter 1. Van der Waerden's theorem on arithmetic progressions. Chapter 2. The Landau-Shnirelmann hypothesis and Mann's theorem. Chapter 3. An elementary solution of Waring's problem.

These are all difficult problems from the theory of numbers and I think that the elementary proofs that Khinchin describes here are original. This book is a challenging but enjoyable read.

I also recommend his other book on number theory: "Continued Fractions".

The Working Brain is exellent reading for anyone studying neuroscience. It explains the actual mechanics of the brain and how it procceses stimuli. Not only the external, but also the internal enviorments as well.
It provides clear and concise diagrams on what area of the brain does what.
It has been a world of help to me!

Thank you,
Dale Dejnowski

This book is a classic. It is a must read for all neuropsychologists and neuroscientists. Luria clearly and effectively presents all the basic concepts of neuropsychology ranging from the general physiology of the reticular formation to the fundamental functional aspects of the language zones (e.g., Broca's area).

Alexander Kuprin dedicated this book to the motherhood and the youth. And even though it deals with unspeakable horrors of people living and acting worse than any beasts imaginable, it's at its heart about friendship, love, and devotion. These virtues, most often absent in the world of the riches, are found in what seems to be the deepest pit (yama) of social injustice.
I read this book in high school, lured in by Kuprin's other famous stories, such as "The Duel" (his first success, just as impressive as the later ones), "Gambrinus" or "The Bracelet of Garnets." Back then the emotional punch of "The Pit" pushed me to become a strong believer in women's rights, and helped me to form a solid idea of what a true man is as opposed to the dispeakable "men" portrayed by Kuprin's stinging prose.
Now, as an adult, I firmly believe that this book is a must read for any growing man, so that he learns how to be human in the highest sense of the word, as opposed to "respectable" and heartless "consumers" like so many showcased in this story.
NB: why do the words "a novel of prostitution" appear in the title? It's not in the original and absolutely unnecessary. What should appear instead is "a novel of real life".

How many well-known and not so well-known writers of the world tried to describe the life of the prostitute, the life in the bottomless pit? All of these writers tried to understand the mentality of the prostitute, the reasons to become one, and the pain of her existance. The pit... It describes it all. One word says it all. The deep hole and there is not exit, there is no way out. Every new day takes you deeper and deeper. Once you are in, you stay there. You stay there for life. And, when you are old (not really old but fairly used up), you are out and you have no means to survive. No one needs you and no one wants you any longer. You were better off in the pit.

There is no book better than this to examine the social system under which hundreds of millions of people lived, largely wasted, and ended their lives. In contrast to, say, "Cursed Days" by Bunin, the author lived out his life in the mire of Absurdistan, and can explain the WHOLE period even better than Solzhenitzyn. An era, the most tragic in human history, when one could choose to either be beaten to death or bored to death. A must for any intellectual contemplating the future.

This is the famous lampooning of how life was in the Soviet Union, with veiled and caricatured personas of Stalin, Khrushchev, Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak and many, many more from that time period. One of the Soviet Union's leading philosophers, Alexander Zinoviev was, upon Brezhnev's personal orders, stripped of all degrees and honors, dismissed from his appointments, expelled from the Communist Party and deprived of citizenship for writing this book This novel has been described as the bitterest satirical attack on the Soviet system to appear in Russian (and most probably in English as well). The book can be read on a number of different levels. It's one of those "My, God!" revelatory books that has relevance in this day and age. Comparitive with Swift, Kafka, Rabelais and Orwell. An infinately readable, despite its length, modern day classic. Get your hands on a copy by hook or by crook!

Yevtushenko's early poems were, and still are, some of his best--powerful, vivid, and brilliant, even in English translation. This is a bilingual Russian/English edition.

His poem, "Babii Yar," about the slaughter of Jews at that fateful place during World War II, was used as the centerpiece for Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony. Written in 1962 to combat anti-Semitism, it is just as powerful and meaningful today as when it was first read.

"Nothing in me shall ever forget!" (from "Babii Yar")

One can argue that Yegevny Yevtushenko is Russia's greatest modern poet. At the peak of his career, he packed theaters in Russia. People flocked to see him, to hear Russia's muse read his scripture. This volume of poetry includes Yevtushenko's masterwork. Upon writing his poem Babii Yar, Yevtushenko became a worldwide success. This piece gave fame to a site in Russia where thousands of slaughtered Jews rest. Yevtushenko's poems hold subtle indictments of Soviet Society. Babii Yar incriminates the Russians who do not want to remember all the Russian Jews who perished. In A Career, the poet expresses his dislike for those who deny the truth in order to win approval from their leaders. The book features Yevtushenko's poems in both Russian and english. If one cannot read Yevtushenko's native language, the english version, translated by George Reavy, is sufficient. Although not percisely translated, the poems hold that same meaning and stark beauty.

Engelgardt's book, "Letters From The Country" is a fascinating look at Russian peasantry and gentry lifstlyle during the late 19th century. It is a faboulus book that explores the meticulous lifestyles of these countryside peasants. The letters show the simple and surprisingly postive way these people go about farming their villages and taking care of eachother. I highly recommend this book to all interested in Russian history.

The husband-and-wife team of Alexandr Rodchenko/Varvara Stepanova are the most well known graphic designers of the era. The Museum of Modern Art in New York had an exhibition in 1998 devoted to their works; the catalogue, 'Aleksandr Rodchenko', is a well presented overview that is ideal for those wanting to learn about the art and politics of post-revolutionary Russia.

This book is all about the Soviet Union under Stalin. The study guide gives lots of information about life at that time, and about the meaning of Solzhenitsyn's themes. A big help if you want to understand the story better. I tried to get this kind of information on the web but couldn't find it. I think I'd like to read more about the author now.

Review in "Artscene" December/January 1998/9

Art as the cognition of life (Mehring Books £19.99) is a large selection of critical writings by A.K. Voronsky. It is impeccably translated and superbly presented. Voronsky was a Bolshevik critic and editor whose life and work was expunged by the Stalinist regime. Predictably, then, he is in the Engels camp of Marxist criticism ("The more the opinions of the author remain hidden, the better for the work of art") and not the Leninist camp ("Literature must become Party literature!").

Voronsky is not a radical critic, but openly develops his key notions from the work of the 19th century writer V.G. Belinsky, and the title-piece of this book is in some ways the least relevant of the collected essays. More intriguing are those which dwell on the circumstances and the figures of the time; some well known to the West (Maxim Gorky or H.G. Wells), other much less so (the poet Sergei Esenin or Voronsky's friend Mikhail Frunze).

This is a significant historical document, a window onto a smudged world and into a giddy time that wants for levelheaded commentary. Voronsky is an authoritative voice rather than a great critic; but you have to remind yourself of the constant barrage or personal attack he was under and marvel at the near complete absence of self-justification and cheap vitriol in his writings. Reviewing the "disgraced" political activist and thinker G.V. Plekanov he bemoans: "The revolution is ruthless. Like Saturn it devours its children, without slowing its furious pace for even a second". 17 years later this "furious pace" saw Voronsky shot and buried in an unmarked grave near Moscow.

Sheffield's Mehring Books deserve huge credit for publishing Art as the Cognition of Life, but who can pretend there is a ready market for it? There are many kinds of censorship but the "free economy" is, in telling ways, the most efficient of them.